The Ridges
by ClassyMuse
Summary: season2-ish. "Its an all-you-can-eat buffet of wierd." Welcome to Athens, Ohio. The Winchesters meet their match as they encounter the most haunted college campus in the US (asylum included), a triple threat entity, and Dean meets his equal. May the banter begin. R&R is awesome. No wincest, not my thing.
1. Prologue: A Favor

They could handle winter, summer, and fall weather. They only hated spring. No matter how pretty the blossoms were on the fruit trees or the comfort the slightly warmer weather brought, there were two things that came along with it that they hated: Rain and mud. Those two things made their job more of a pain in the ass than it needed to be. Digging graves was messy and hard to cover up. Kindling for burning the bones never burned being soaked from the April showers. Some places had flooded streets and close calls with cops redirecting them away from their destination. What else did spring bring them? A whole lot of bitchin' about all of the above.

Sam and Dean had finished a salt-and-burn job in the middle of Lenawee County, Michigan. Some ghost was dragging people down to some place with a lake out to its sandy peninsula. The entity had a tendency to leave them for dead, soaked to the bone after nearly drowning and fighting hypothermia, all in one week. They traced the damn thing to an unmarked grave up one of the few hills and got rid of the damn thing, now they had to cover the grave again. They had to be a little more careful about making the ground look undisturbed by peeling off the top layer of grass and soil. That proved to be difficult since the dirt pile they had made was turning into a heap of brown sludge now that it had been raining for about an hour with no sign of letting up. Still they pressed on.

"There had better be a hose at one of those summer houses up the road," Dean muttered, tossing some mud back into the hole. "No way I'm stepping foot in my baby covered in clay."

Sam shoved a dirt boulder he had previously moved back in the mud, "What, the rain doesn't count as a shower these days?"

"If that were the case we would have been clean ten times over." Dean tossed the last bit of clay in the grave and stuck the shovel back in the ground upright. "Alright, let's get the grass layer back on this ass hole and find a house with a hose." Sam nodded in agreement.

Before they had a chance to turn around they could feel something cold metal touch the each of the back of their heads. Instinctively they raised their hands in mock surrender. Dean had already begun to formulate a story in his head. They listened for some standard cop mumbo jumbo or an oldman get-off-my-lawn speech. "Well, well, well. Look at what the werecat puked up, Sam and Dean Winchester."

That caught the brothers off guard. No one said werecat unless they knew they existed. That was only a handful of other hunters that they knew, at least the ones they found. They listened closely trying to figure out who the voice belonged to. "You know, I thought your daddy taught you better than to get caught and that digging a muddy grave was all kinds of stupidity."

Dean knew that voice, Sam just barely remembered. Dean slowly turned around to face the man behind the guns. Even in the dark he could see the man's features. He couldn't have been any older than Dean. Dark hair, tall like Sam, but not nearly enough wear-and-tear from hunting like the job did to them. It was the silver glint of a chainlink strung by a thin black cord around his neck that gave his identity away. Dean let out a small laugh, "Son of a bitch."

The man laughed back at him, "No, son of Carol. Nice try though."

Dean brought his arms down and Sam turned around. He knew who this was, but he had to be sure, "Austin?"

"In the flesh." Austin smirked.

"What the hell are you doing here, man?" Dean asked.

"I was going to ask you that the moment I saw that car of yours at the town square, but first." Austin turned to the side and picked up a five-gallon bucket of holy water and tossed it adding insult to injury to the brother's already soaked condition. Austin seemed pleased with himself. "Good, not a demon." The next thing he did was throw salt in their faces. Both brothers shocked and pissed. "And you boys aren't anything else I can think of. Sorry about that."

Dean wiped the salt off from his face, "Yeah, you better be. You gonna help us out or not?"

"Yeah, get in the back of the truck."

"That's alright, we got the car. Just need to rinse off, first," Sam said, taking off his wet jacket.

Austin pulled out the keys to the Impala out of his pocket, "Gotcha covered."

Dean pulled the keys out of Austin's hand. "What the hell?"

"Rookie mistakes. Shouldn't have left them in the car, or left a nice car like that parked on the side of the road, especially considering you are both still wanted men."

"Where is the car? If you as so much fucked with the engine-"

"Chill out, its parked in my garage, safe and warm. Geez. Now get your muddy asses in the back of the truck."

/ / /

Austin only lived a mile or so away in a little cabin. It seemed too normal to belong to a hunter, but Austin didn't come from a conventional family of hunters.

The brothers hosed themselves down by the garage before entering the house through the garage, throwing their soddy clothes in the washer. Dean made time to make sure his baby was unharmed. Two showers and clean clothes later the three men had settled in Austin's living room, alcohol in hand.

It had been over a decade since they had heard from Austin or his family. They knew each other well one summer when they were teens and their dads worked one a pack of werewolves for a whole summer. It was the longest they had stayed in one place, but for Austin's family staying in one place for more than a few months was normal. They were stationary hunters. They would settle in a place with loads of supernatural activity (active or not) and work to get rid of any bad things there and build supernatural boundaries around the village for a year, sometimes longer. Nothing could come in and nothing could leave. They were good at covering their tracks. Both his parents Carol and Carl were hunters, hell they took Austin everywhere they went, but they changed their ways when they found out he was going to have a little sister, Erin. Normalacy had to happen. Carol saw what the Winchester way of life was and did not want that for her children.

"So what are the likes of you doing these days? Out of the family business?" Sam asked.

Austin took a swig from his beer bottle. "Hell no! I'm still hunting those bastards down."

Dean raised his eyebrow in skepticism, "Then why the hell weren't you on that lake ghost?"

Austin slumped in his recliner, "Saw the car on my way to work a week ago, figured you guys were in town, gave myself some well-deserved time off."

Woah, work? Dean thought. Austin only knew how to hunt. "Okay, Mister Normal, what are you doing when you aren't getting your hands dirty?"

Austin scoffed, "I fix cars down at the Ford dealership. I have to keep some honest work for my alibi to stick around and keep people safe."

Sam nodded. God he wished he had this life. Honest work. It had a strange ring to it when he was saying it in his head. "What about your folks? They stick around in Missouri?"

"Nah, they are settled in Oregon."

"They still hunting?" Dean asked.

"Dad was forced to retire two years ago, but he does help out when he can with research."

"Forced?" Sam asked.

"You would think with all the shit we had to put up with our true occupation that would kill us. No, he was in a car wreck. Now he's paralyzed from the waist down."

"Sorry, man."

"Nah, he knew he was going to slow down at some point. Still stubborn as hell, but hey his research takes off some of the workload for me. He liked retirement."

Silence fell. Dean looked around the room at the photos on the mantle of the fireplace. There were tons of pictures with him, his sister, and his dad, but only one of his mother in the center. "How's your mom?"

Austin got quiet, "She passed away last summer. Stroke."

"I'm sorry."

Austin pushed the memory away. "So what about you guys? I heard through the grape vine that John passed away a few months back. You guys alright?"

The Winchesters said nothing about John. That was still a sour topic of conversation between them let alone with others. Dean spoke, "Just going case to case, salt-and-burns, got arrested, got out of prison, now fugitives, you know, everyday life. First world problems."

Sam got up and looked closer at the pictures. He was interested in the one of his sister. Erin was only a year younger than Dean. Last time he saw her she was a short little thing with braces, not much to look at, but the most recent picture told another story. She still looked short but she made up in height with beauty. If it wasn't for the height or age she could easily pass as Austin's twin. "So where is Erin?"

Dean looked smug, "I bet she realized the hunting way of life isn't for her, huh?" Dean didn't really fall for the whole women-can't-hunt belief, but some just didn't belong.

Austin just glared at Dean. "Actually she is kicking ass and taking names down in her own town about three hundred miles south east from here."

Dean was surprised. "Your dad let her go out on her own?"

"Don't act surprised. Dad had no doubt in her from the get-go. Mom was reluctant, but Erin has been on her own down there for the last three years. Took on quite a project too, which is why I am going to ask you guys for a favor."

"A favor?" Sam got on the defensive.

"Consider it as payment to my family taking care of you ass hats for that summer while our dads worked on that werewolf pack."

Dean was all ears.  
"I'm worried about Erin. She came back for mom's funeral and I notice some funny things about her. I checked for all possibilities of something possessing her, or a shapeshifter, so she is in the clear of that. She was careful to not raise her upper body in a way that would expose herself, but she wasn't watching when I caught sight of some fresh scratches. At first I thought it was a war badge but when dad and I visited her a few months ago and she and I worked on a ghost I could see that she was actually scared of something up there. Erin isn't scared of a damn thing."

"Have you talked to her about it?" Sam asked.

"You don't think I haven't? Getting her to open up is a lot like getting Dean to admit that he may have a broken bone."

"Hey!" Yes, it was said in a very Dean-like tone.

"I try to help but she gets on the defensive and I try to stay away from it. I just told her that if she needed help that I would be there in a moment's notice. I only hear from her when I call." Austin paused. "I'm just worried about my little sister, that's all."

Sam could see that Dean wasn't interested. He remembered what his past with Erin was like. It wasn't bad back in their teen years. It was like a prank war on steroids, but it was apparent that Dean was still holding a grudge. Sam took charge of this case. "We can do that. Just tell us where she is and we can be down there in the morning." Dean shot him a deathly glare but Austin looked relieved.

"Thanks guys. Uh, yeah she lives in Athens, Ohio. Heh, there is no place quite like it."

/ / /

The Following Morning, Lancaster, Ohio.

Dean was doing all that he could to bring his temper down. Driving through Columbus was like driving through orange barrel hell. Sam was too oblivious to it all researching in the car of any supernatural happenings in Athens, Ohio. "The EMF is going to overheat in our hands when we hit the city limits," he muttered.

"Care to share with the class?" Dean asked, eyes still on route thirty three east.

"Well first off, its home to Ohio University. Number one party school according to Princeton Review, most haunted campus in the country, and it looks like everyone is a fan of their marching band more than they are a fan of football….Now that's just weird. Oh and a part of the campus is an abandoned insane asylum called The Ridges where most of the paranormal shit seems to be connected to."

"So this is an all-you-can-eat buffet of weird shit. Great."

"I don't think it will be that bad. They have twenty bars on one street block." Dean didn't even react. He was steaming about something. Sam figured that would make him a little happy about the case. "Alright, what's bothering you?"

"Nothin'," Dean replied.

"And that is the biggest piece of bullshit I have heard."

"Sam."

"No, ever since the mere mention of her name you have been a dick."

"Don't look for demons where there aren't any, Sammy."

"It has been eleven years! Are you still pissed off at her?"

"She started it," he mumbled.

"What?"

"Shut up, Sam."

"You know you're acting really childish."

"She shouldn't stolen my amulet."

"You melted her silver Saint Cecelia medallion for bullets."

"She shouldn't have ripped up my AC/DC Who Made Who cassette up."

"You shouldn't have insulted her music."

"She took the Impala out for a joyride."

"You told her that hunting wasn't for girls, and if I remember correctly that was the final nail on your coffin."

"Whatever."

"Look, just drop it. We are going to help her out, we are going to have to fight her for it and you need to let it go so be an adult, Dean."

"Fine…..God, I'm going to need a drink from one of those bars just thinking about this."

**Here goes my first go at SPN fanfiction. I have thought long and hard about writing it all down since I have been struggling with my other stuff over in the batman/comic category, but the brothers are so much fun to write. Be awesome and leave a review, favorite it, tell your friends.**


	2. Match

The last two hours of the trip to Erin's house was anything but silent. Both brothers were at the end of their ropes when they entered the city limits. They could feel the atmosphere change drastically from normal to downright creepy when they turned onto Richland Avenue, over the bridge, bringing them right to the main campus. Dean cursed at everything student jaywalking that he nearly hit, even the hot chicks in their yoga pants. Sam gripped the passenger seat as if his life depended on it. It seemed as if the whole damn city was made of old brick one way streets. Finding State street and Shafer was a lot harder than they thought. They were literally going around in circles enough that Sam was able to count each bar; there were twenty-four. Dean had finally given up and decided to ask for directions, but he had to find a parking spot first. That was another nightmare. It seemed as if no parking spot existed, even the metered ones, and those that did they risked getting towed. No lie, they spotted a couple tow trucks in different parts of the block. At last they stopped and asked a student who directed them via landmarks. Nothing was easy about the route that 'punk ass college boy'. All the streets were narrow, you couldn't see where you were going to turn half the time, and the hills. Oh lord the hills. For a while he was afraid the Impala was going to give up on him.

Finally they reached their destination, a dark brown shot gun house on the corner of State and Shafer. Dean was mentally punching himself realizing that he wasted so much time and fuel on a route that now seemed so easy. Of course it was still raining. It seemed to be a trend in Ohio, warm and rainy. Sam checked his watch, it read ten thirty in the morning, that was a sociably acceptable time to go knocking on doors on a Sunday.

Dean being the tenacious one knocked thrice on the green screen door. After a moment with no response he knocked again. And again. And again. Sam pulled his fist down before he could knock anymore. "Chill out, Sheldon." Sam checked the side of the house for a vehicle. A blue Saturn was there. Someone had to be home. Dean had turned and walked off the porch. "Probably the wrong address. Gonna have to call Austin to figure this out."

Sam figured as much until he noticed some strange piping lining the foundation of the house. He crouched down and realized it was iron, and under it in more iron plating was rock salt. No normal person did that. Just a hunter. It was a safety barrier. "We'll wait," he said.

"Why? You find something?" his older brother asked.

Sam walked back onto the porch, Dean following behind. "There is iron and salt around the foundation of the house. A hunter lives here. Even if it isn't Erin maybe the person who lives here now may know something. Might know where she has gone if she left."

There was a slamming sound coming from inside the house that startled them both. "Someone's home."

The door opened and there stood a petite woman with short dark hair, disheveled clothing, probably from the night before, and looked like she had a long night. She leaned to the side of the doorjam, squinting from the subtle light outside. "You guys realize it is a sin to wake up a bartender before noon after a Saturday night?" Wow, what a greeting.

Sam noticed Dean ogling her and figured he would deal with the introductions on this case. "Uh, sorry, but you may not remember us-"

She cut Sam off, "Yeah, I more than likely don't. After a while the faces in the bar just blur after working in there for three years. What do you want?"

"Well, I'm Sam and this is my brother Dean. We spent a summer with your family when we were younger. Nothing ringing a bell?"

Erin looked closely at both the boys standing on her porch. It had been years since her family let anyone stay with them for that long. These guys could be posers, shapeshifters for all she knew. "If you are who you say you are what did Dean do with my saint medallion?" She inquired.

Dean snapped out of his ogle and answered, "I made silver bullets out of it."

Erin smiled at the confirmed sighting on her porch. "Winchesters. I wonder what kind of deals with the devil you had to make to get this far." She stepped out of the door and pulled Sam into a hug. "It's good to see you, Sam."

Sam returned the gesture, "Good to see you too."

When it came to Dean she just acknowledged that he was there.

"Erin," Dean greeted, not making any moves.

"Dean." She sighed at the sight of her childhood arch-rival. It seemed like it was just yesterday that the both of them could rip out each other's throats. "Well, get inside. You guys are still wanted fugitives and the last thing I need is the Sheriff to drive by. Dean, you go park the car." She let Sam in but slammed the screen door in Dean's face.

"So this is how its gonna be," he muttered.

/ / /

For a bartender Erin had it made. Sure the house didn't look like much from the outside, but the inside had character. It looked pretty damn normal compared to what Bobby had in his house. Erin made sure to keep that out of sight in one of the rooms farther back towards the back door. Nice furniture, functioning appliances, and no stains on the ceiling. IT was a major improvement from what the brothers had been living in. Like her brother's, Erin's house had plenty of pictures of her family. She was one of the lucky ones who grew up hunting but was on good and speaking terms with her family.

Erin had Dean and Sam unpack and settle themselves in her home. She didn't bother to ask why they were in town, but hunters take care of their own. She would get the details from them once she took care of her slightly hungover, sleep deprived condition. Fresh clothes and a shower to rinse away the bar smell was a good start.

When she walked out of her room, dressed in jeans and a blue and white baseball tee-shirt, she found them patiently waiting for her on her couch, watching the news. Their upbringing made them paranoid of the media, more so since she last they had escaped prison.

She settled into her recliner beside the couch. "So besides the obvious activity Athens has why do two hunters show up on my porch without as much as a phone call to give me the heads up?"

"Uh, just found a case online, followed it here and Bobby mentioned you lived in town," Dean lied.

Erin caught on to his lies so easily. She wondered if the rest of the world was just stupid to no to the same. "Yeah I haven't spoken to Bobby since I finished high school, he came to my graduation party. Dad made sure to keep me off the radar. And I have had the activity under control for the last few years. Why are you really here?"

Dean dropped the façade. "You're brother sent us."

Erin hated it when her brother checked in on her. She was twenty-five, lived on her own, beat a demon or two, she didn't need anyone to check in on her. "He would wouldn't he? Well you guys can then go on your merry way. There is nothing to worry about."

Sam spoke up, "He told us about the scratches. He told us about there being new ones but in similar patterns. Not to mention you being a little…off."

"Yeah, well my brother doesn't know a damn thing," she snarled. "It is nothing I can't handle."

Dean decided to get blunt. It may open a can of worms sending them both on a bloody war path but he owed Austin a little bit of something. "If you could handle it we wouldn't be here. Look your family is just worried."

"Goddammit, there is nothing to worry about. I got the barrier up around the city, took care of most of the weird stuff, barely had to dig up a grave and managed to have a job. It's nothing."

Sam got up and stood above her, "Why don't you prove to us that you have it all covered? Just show us around and we can go from there and if that means I have to lie to your brother then I will."

Erin looked up at the young Winchester. "Fine," she said, sounding reluctant. She looked over at Dean, "But we take my car."

/ / /

It was a tight squeeze in her car, but that didn't bother Dean one bit. It was the music choices. Now he remembered why he insulted her music. Erin was like Sam, eclectic, but she had soo much. She had hooked up her Ipod to a jack and set the thing on shuffle. What he wouldn't do for some Blue Oyster Cult. No, he had to listen to Depesche Mode. She drove them all around the main campus and a few cemeteries. She prided herself about her first lone job in the theater. The way she told it was that it was a cluster fuck of ghosts fucking with the lights, nearly burning the place down. Now only one ghost dwells there. Erin liked ghosts, she was weird like that. She called the theater ghost Lester. He was harmless. The most he did was leave cold spots. She left him alone. The brothers warned her about it but she was confident that she made the right decision.

Wilson hall, one of the dorms, had the brothers on edge. Erin admitted she didn't like that case. The ghost of a former student who practiced in the occult was found self-mutilated and walked the halls, throwing stuff across rooms and letting water run. These were not pranks. The university had put in new plumbing so faulty piping could not be the excuse for whole floors flooding. The dorm hall was a work in progress by Erin's term since the remains of the student were cremated, but what remained were the stains from the blood on the wall that no matter how many times maintenance painted over it they would still reappear. You couldn't exactly salt and burn a wall.

Erin drove them across the river to her big project, The Ridges. The place was huge and creepy as all get-out. Dean didn't like it one bit. Erin glossed over some of its history, from the time it opened to the official closing by the university in the nineties. She only said a few words about the atrocities that took place there. The cemetery with hundreds of stones with only numbers as markers resting on the side of a hill and the TB Ward far from the main building sent Sam's EMF device on the fritz. Even in the warm weather they would feel hundreds of cold spots, especially in the ruined parts of the main building. "How the hell do you stand this?" Dean asked.

Erin was quick with an answer. "You're probably just feeling their presence. They won't hurt ya."

"Why haven't you burned their bones, sent them to the other side?" Dean asked.

"Kind of hard to dig up bones without being noticed, but some of them I was able to. A good chunk of the spirits here were so damaged when they were alive it carried with them in death. They're confused and want to stay some place familiar. It's like taking an autistic kid out of his routine. They aren't hurting anyone so there is no reason to send them away."

Dean didn't care about that logic. Too many loose ends and loop holes. The next thing he figured he would hear from Erin was that she let a murdered keep haunting people but she thought he was cute in a previous life so she kept him around for eye candy.

Erin had turned away from them to check out a spot by the foundation of the old building. From the first day she settled in Athens something told her to never go there. Like she ever listened to her instinct though. There was something there, and it felt evil. It never left her alone when she was there in the last year. The only time she felt totally safe from it was when she entered her home.

/ / /

Back at Erin's house Sam could feel the tension between Erin and Dean exude everywhere. He was only there to pull those two off each other if they went after each other's throats. But thus far it seemed alright. She decided to let them stay on the condition that they followed her rules be it in the car, house, or up in The Ridges. The three of them were back in her office going over every detail of her research. Cemetery records, patient records, history of medical practice, what the university maybe hiding, loads and loads of pictures, and maps. No wonder the campus had so much activity. There were five cemeteries in the city and they formed a pentagram with the campus in the middle. Sam was overwhelmed whereas Dean's few words in that hour went something like this, "What is it and how do I kill it?"

Erin had elected not to go out that night. She wasn't going to tell them why, but they weren't going to complain. Well Dean could but he was under her law, not for long though.

All it took was one witty insult to send the tense adults into a war of insults and hurtful words. Sam stood and watched. It was nice to not be the one insulted and see Dean get put in his place for once, and by a girl too.

"Ass."

"Bitch."

"Weakling."

"Chotch."

"Ice queen."

"Dick."

As much as Sam thought it was entertaining he had had enough. "Okay, since there is no way words are going to settle this, figure it out because, this is rather childish." He laughed at the thought, "Just like old times."

"I bet Dean-o Dog still can't hold his liquor," Erin snarled.

Dean had his game face on, "Sweetheart, being a woman you are a prone lightweight. Don't start something you can't finish."

Erin ducked under her sink and pulled out several bottles of golden liquid displaying them both before the brothers. there were at least twelve of them with different names, some American and some imported. The last thing she pulled out was a box filled with dozens of shot glasses.

They lined them all up and filled with every two glasses with a different brand of whiskey. Each of them had fifteen shots they had to take. "First one to fall on their ass loses," Erin declared.

"You're on."

One by one, each followed with sour faces and gasps, they pressed on. "You're gonna lose, Dean-o," Erin breathed catching her breath from throwing back a strong shot. She was on her sixth shot and was beginning to feel something.

Sam watched his brother in utter shock. Dean was struggling on his fifth. He was getting to old for this, but he would never admit defeat. "Don't count on it," he slurred.

"Can we consider this the end of whatever blood feud you two have?" Sam asked.

"No," they said in unison.

Erin slammed her seventh shot glass on the table. "Can't beat a bartender. Just give up while you can."

"No way, I got an iron liver. I can take more." He had finished his sixth shot. The world was started to feel uneasy around his feet.

"I have to compete with dumb ass students. I'm in far better shape than-"

And Dean passed out on the floor. Sam just shook his head at the sight of his stubborn brother who let his pride get to him. Erin slowly eased herself onto the floor. A smile spread across her face. "I win," she whispered.

**Well that is it for chapter two. I know it seems a little weak, but it will get better. I promise.**


	3. Interview

Dean had been hungover before. This wasn't the worst but by god it still sucked. The moment he woke up from one of his countless nightmares and took a quick turn to face the porcelain god from Erin's living room he figured he had at least until the afternoon before he could function as a human. Light, noise, typical things that wouldn't bother the human race felt like poison being poured on Dean's brain. He checked the clock that Erin had in her bathroom; it read eight in the morning. God, why the hell was he up so early. It didn't matter. Even though the rivalry still stood almost unresolved he felt he to be somewhat polite and not leave his cookies all over her floors.

About an hour later Erin barged in looking like hell, more than she did the morning before. Well, she lived alone, no need to have a lock on the bathroom door, he guessed. She however didn't look like she was going to lose her stomach. Damn that girl could drink. Slowly and quietly Erin rooted through the med cabinet above the sink and tossed Dean an orange cylinder with the wonderful rattle of white tablets shaking in it. Eight hundreds of ibuprofen, nice, he thought just as he bowed his head into the toilet bowl.

Erin sat on the edge of her tub letting her head drop back in a groan. "Truce?"

Dean looked up her, "For what?"

She shook her head and quickly regretted doing so. "Dude, if this is where we are heading I don't wanna continue this. This is a nasty hangover and I don't want anymore."

"I don't see you losing your gut this morning."  
"Whatever. I'm the bigger adult. Anyway, truce?"

Dean wretched but Erin could discern the word truce from him. "What's the catch?" he asked.

Erin sighed, "We leave it up to words. You can call me bitch if I get to call you an ass."

Dean smiled in approval, "I'm cool with that. Hell if we didn't keep something up people would think we were possessed by demons."

"Exactly."

Sam knocked on the door, but it might as well have been a loud thunder for the sobering duo. "Hey so something interesting happened," the younger brother said, talking through the door. Sam opened the door and shook his head at the sight before him. Serves them right, he thought. He tossed the morning paper to Erin (she still subscribed for a physical copy. Printing from the internet was expensive at the rate she kept clippings.) "Check out page A3, something is a little amiss."

Erin unfolded the paper where Sam had circled the article. The title didn't matter, just the content. What she read disgusted her. Five girls were raped the night before, there were precisely positioned by the circle graves next to the Ridges cemetery. The girls had no idea how they got there and there was no physical evidence in the rape kits. The cops were calling it a hoax. Erin had to beg the differ.

She had seen a case like this before. It was one of her first when she moved to Athens. The spirit of a rapist who died on the street practically ghost assaulted the freshmen girls. No evidence therefor no one believed them. It was sad and Erin took that case with vigilance. She damn near tore up the county to find his bones and burned them. Erin wasn't going to let that bastard's spirit hurt anyone ever.

So that guy couldn't be the culprit. Sam broke the silence, "You know anything about that? Anything in your archives?"

Erin gave the paper back to him, "An old case, but it could be anything." She slowly got up from the edge of the tub. "Can't hurt to check this out."

Sam nodded as she walked out, then looked at Dean, "So what was that about?" Dean wretched. "Never mind."

/ / /

There was this one time Sam Winchester was alright riding shotgun and that was whenever Erin drove. For one thing, she knew the whole county like the back of her hand, and her music had variety. It was an ungodly amount of indie, but there were some recognizable tunes. It suited the scenery of Appalachian Ohio well. They took a turn onto a gravel road off the old state route and drove deep into the woods to what appeared to be a small and forgotten cemetery. There were a few idle headstones. When they got out of the car Erin walked up to the center stone. The words on it were indiscernible but Erin walked around the gravesite as if she knew it well. "So, uh, why are we here?" Sam asked.

Erin walked around the gravesite, kicking up the soggy leaves to reveal the dirt, tracing her hands over it. "My first case was similar to this one. A drifter raped women back in the forties, died by the hand of the woman he attacked, haunted for a few years sexually assaulting women. No physical evidence, plus it wasn't a good time for women back then, so no one believed them. The last two parts of the story is that this went on for years, I only have evidence from those who reported it." She sighed at the sad memory. "God only knows how many women had their lives ruined." She got up from the ground and walked back to the car, Sam following behind, "It was a basic salt-and-burn, but I will never forget it."

"So what now?" Sam asked getting into the passenger seat.

"That ground hasn't been disturbed, so that bastar is still dead. You and your brother are going to get your duds on."

/ / /

Out of the five girls, only three were in the hospital. All of them were brought in since they were found in bad condition exposed to the elements. Two of the girl's parents picked them up and took them home, outraged that no one believed them.

Dean and Sam donned the suits and ties again under the aliases Agent Robert Kerouac and Agent Jack Ginsberg, courtesy of Erin's mind. Only Sam understood the reference since Dean was never partial to reading.

They slipped through O'Bleness Hospital, the one closest to the main campus, almost undetected and their identities were never questioned. Either the people of Athens were really stupid or the Winchesters were getting way too good at impersonating federal officers. The government was interested in a string of similar cases, that was their story. Each of the girls were in separate rooms but they picked the one who was awake.

Sam approached her first, Dean standing in the background. He was going to let Sam's puppy-dog eyes do all the work. Her name was Miranda, she was a junior at the university studying history, short hair, tiny little thing. "Hi, I'm Agent Kerouac and this is my partner Agent Ginsberg." The girl didn't even acknowledge them, but Sam continued. "We are very sorry about what happened, but we were hoping you could answer some questions we have."

the girl turned over to face him and glared at him. "You won't believe me. The cops won't, what makes you different?"

"There has a string of similar reports coming into our offices and we have reason to believe that they are all connected."

"Which part? The lying girls," she snarled, "or the actual rape."

"The latter."

Miranda looked as if she was about the break down. Someone believed her, "It really happened. I don't want to talk about it."

Sam hated this. Dead bodies were bad but you could read their stories, hearing it was the worst. Dean agreed. "Miss, if you tell us what you can you could very well bring us closer to bringing your rapist into custody and put away for a long time so no one else gets hurt."

Fighting tears Miranda nodded. "Okay."

/ / /

They had interviewed all the two girls, all with the same story. They had faced demons and hellish fangirls, but this took the cake on pissing Dean and Sam off. Once they were in the car Dean dialed Erin's number; she was at her home researching and running through any records she stole from The Ridges. She picked up her cell phone, "You got anything good?"

Dean replied, "Yeah, but I wouldn't call it good, I'd call it that-sick-bastard-who-did-this-is-going-to-rot-in-hell-when-we-finish-him."

Erin sighed at the other line. Cases like this broker her heart. "Alright what did you find?"

"Five girls who didn't know each other, no idea how they got where they were. All they saw was a face of a bearded old man in a white shirt and pants chanting some mumbo jumbo and hurting them."

"What about the girls?"

"What do you mean about the girls?"

"Obviously whatever kind of entity did this has selected these girls, not just random. He's got a preference. Anything these girls may have in common? Say appearance?"

Dean thought about it for a minute. "Now that you mention it they were all small in height and had dark short hair."

"It's something, but I'm going to go back and see what I can find now that I can narrow the search down. What are you guys doing now?"

"Going to find something to eat, you have a diner that I don't have to fight for a parking spot to get to?"

/ / /

"Worst decision ever," Dean groaned falling over on Erin's couch.

Sam rolled his eyes at his older brother, who was fine. "Wuss. It was just a burger."

"No, it wasn't just a burger," he replied, head buried in a throw pillow. "It was a great burger and its killing me on the inside without killing me on the inside."

"That would be called a food coma."

Erin walked out of her office with a few folders in hand, dressed in cut-offs and a hoodie, reading glasses on too. She raised her eyebrow and pointed at Dean, "Let me guess, you two went to Court Street Diner and he had the buffalo burger."

"How did you know?" Dean moaned.

"Dumb ass." She dropped the folders on her ottoman, Sam picking up one of them browsing through the contents. "I narrowed it down to a few guys who could potentially be our ghost rapist. All of them former patients at The Ridges. One from nineteen nineteen, one guy from nineteen thirty-two, and the last guy from nineteen sixty-one. All serial rapists, all mentally deranged."

"What about burials?" Sam asked.

"One of my projects at the Ridges was archiving who died and was buried there since just about all of those markers have numbers on there. There are nearly two thousand people buried up there, nine hundred plus of them men. The first two guys are actually buried but I don't have much of a description on them and I can't find any pictures, but the last guy," she pulled out a mugshot from another folder and handed it to Dean, "fits the description you guys got to a T."

Indeed that bastard did, but they could never be too sure in their line of work.

Sam was impressed, "Might as well be a curator for the place." Erin did not answer. She was staring at the picture in Dean's hand. She had seen his face before but faces blended to her. Just looking at the picture though made her feel that something was evil about it. It was like he left a mark on her. "Erin?"

"Yeah?" she responded.

"You okay?"

She brushed it off, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

Dean lifted his head off the pillow. "So we go up to the Ridges, hunt this guy down?"

Erin nodded, "Yup, and I'm going to introduce you to a friend of mine. We're going to break into that bad boy tonight."

**Reviews are greatly appreciated. Oh I promise to turn up the humor, but this story has taken a drastic change of pace than I planned. I like it lol. So help me out here! **


	4. Meet Maggie

It was raining when the sun went down. Figures, it was Ohio afterall. Erin had warned the brothers about that, but Dean was too stubborn to listen, even on the practical things. She laughed at the boys when she turned around, only moments out of her Saturn they were soaked while she was bone dry under her navy slicker. She had parked the car off in the shadows on the edge of The Ridges property line, far enough away in case the OUPD drove by that it wouldn't be seen. Like the Winchesters she too had her weapons stash on a false bottom of her trunk plus a small wooden chest under the driver's seat with silver bullets and holy water. On the top of the box was etched Hope for Best, Be Prepared for the Worst.

She made sure that Dean and Sam were prepared for the worst. Erin's specialty was ghosts and poltergeists. Sure the Winchesters knew their stuff, but Erin had her ways that proved to be less messy thus bringing unwanted attention. No wonder she was able to stay in one place. Erin carried a little bit of salt, an iron rod hooked on a belt loop, and a lighter. That was all they were going to need if the situation were to arise.

The brothers blindly followed Erin who walked casually around the grounds without a flashlight. "So who is this friend we are going to meet?" Dean asked, practically yelling over the roar of the rain.

Erin smiled back at them. "One of my first friends I made here. She's been living here since the seventies."

/ / /

They crawled through a window that Erin had previously loosened the bolts of the bars on back in the day. Dean and Sam were not surprised but what they had seen. Most abandoned asylums looked the same: Dark, ruined, paint peeling off the wall, all the good stuff that said home sweet home to them. But talk about running blind! They walked through a maze of corridors that blended the renovated parts of the asylum, the surplus wings that belonged to the university that were once patient rooms (one that they would see had old instruments and band uniform parts, more than likely from that famous Marching 110 the townies talked about), and ruined halls. The brothers lost track of her a few times, but the minute Dean cursed Erin appeared and guided them.

When they reached the most ruined part of the asylum Dean made it verbally clear that he didn't like the feeling her got. "How on earth do you live with this weird shit? You a glutton for punishment?"

Erin turned to face Dean, "You need to relax. Some of the ghosts and spirits here are still mentally fragile. They can sense when something is off and they get a little restless. If you relax they back off."

Dean looked at Sam, "Is this real or are we dealing with a ghost whisperer that isn't J Love Hewitt?"

"She seems to know what she is doing, just follow."

They stopped at a door when Erin turned, "You two big boys need to watch your step. The stairs are pretty old and the last thing I need is for you guys is to be Frodo and fall a lot."

They climbed the stairs carefully up to the top. The farther they went up the more and more they could feel a presence. At the top of the stairs at the end of another long hallway they came to a door. Erin knocked and quietly called, "Hey Maggie."

"Woah woah woah, wait a minute," Dean said. "Are you conjuring up something?"

"I'm not conjuring, I'm calling," Erin replied.

"I'm sorry, but who is Maggie?" Sam asked.

The door opened revealing a dead end room with windows. No one was there. Erin smiled at the brothers. "My friend." They walked into the room and that was when Erin turned on her flashlight, pointing it at the floor. "Whatever you do don't step on whats left of her."

Sam looked down and saw what appeared to be a white stain on the floor shaped like the upper half of a woman. "This is where she died?"

"Yeah," Erin replied. "Margaret Schilling was a patient here back in the day. A mute among other disorders. She doesn't divulge much about her story to me but she died up here, two weeks later they found her body and it left that stain." She walked the perimeter of the room. "Hey Maggie, I know you got some gossip." She was very casual how she spoke to ghosts.

"Gossip?" Dean questioned. "You just said she was a mute."

Erin shrugged. "What I have been here a few years, me and Maggie have a thing. Oh there she is, right behind Sam."

Sam turned around to face an old woman, dressed in a white robe, eyes sunk in and tired looking. She smiled and waved at him but it didn't make Sam and Dean feel any less freaked out. "She won't hurt you, but she thinks you need a hair cut, Sam."

"How do you know what she is saying?" Sam asked.

"What? Look I can read ghosts. Just accept it." Erin walked over to Maggie. "You know anything about those girls who have been dragged up here?"

Maggie looked away. She didn't want to talk about it. "Maggie, it's kind of important. I know you know everyone's business up here. Please tell me what you can."

The Winchesters watched Erin converse with a ghost. Every instinct in them screamed to salt and burn the stain, but this could be a lead for the current case. They couldn't screw this up. Erin would be pissed. God only knew that would get them killed later. "So are we just gonna watch this weird ghost-speak?" Sam asked his brother.

Dean was unsure what to do. "I guess. God, it looks like some weird chick-flick meets Law and Order meets Crossing Over kind of deal. It screams weird shit."

In a blink of an eye Maggie was gone and Erin led the boys out of the room and down the stairs. "Care to share what you brought us in for show-and-tell?" Dean asked.

"I think I know where our guy is."

/ / /

The basement of the asylum was one of the few places in Athens, Ohio that gave Erin the creeps. Old rumors and legends said people were chained up down there, especially when the place overflowed with patients, but to Erin and a few of the ghosts forever walking around The Ridges it was a sad truth. What got to here every time she went down there was a few words etched on the wall, I was never crazy.

Dean touched on of the chain bolts on the brick wall. "How could someone do that to a person?"

"No one will understand, Dean," Sam said.

When they looked away they saw Erin running her hands over a wall, trying to reach up to a window. God she hated being short. Dean laughed at the sight. "Need help there, runt?"

She scoffed, "Sam could I use your six-foot-six to get me a view?"

Sam obliged getting a closer look outside. Dean looked through the same window. Erin pointed to another barred window. There was another set of windows to their left, but there was no way to get there. Why would there be windows if there wasn't a room there to begin with. "One of these things doesn't belong with the other. We need to get outside."

"Its pouring."

"And?"

/ / /

Talk about over prepared, Erin had a drill in the back of her car, heavy duty at that. Sam had back the car up to their current location. Dean unbolted the barred window in the pouring rain. "Could you tell us what we are looking for in here?" he shouted over the rain to Erin.

"A body."

"How do you know it's a body?"

"I have had a bad feeling about this little section since day one. Something is in there sealed up, has to be a body or something someone didn't want anyone to find."

The bars came loose and Erin grabbed a baseball bat from the trunk. She wasted to time in bashing the glass. When she was finished she grabbed some rope. "Alright, lower me in."

"What?! You aren't totally sure what is down there!"

"Okay, if you can shrink down to size, sure be my guest. I'm the only one between a troll and a sasquatch that can fit."

Dean reluctantly lowered her in and tossed her a flashlight.

It was a little room, as expected sealed from the basement. She took one step and could feel something snap and crack under her feet.

Sure enough it was a body, more like a skeleton though. Yeah, exactly what she thought it was.

/ / /

Digging in the rain seemed to be a common theme. Dean hated it. They picked up the remains, bolted the window bars back in place and made themselves scarce to a patch of woods off the old state route north of Athens, around the same area that Erin took Sam earlier. They were going to make a hole, burn the bones, bury the guy again.

Erin filled them in on what she knew while they dug and she kept watch. Maggie told her there was another spirit that was around while she was alive. He was evil. He did things to girls. Sure enough Erin had to go with her gut and follow down the basement. The rest was history.

They did their business, they left, they went back to her house and cleaned up. It was three in the morning. Thank god she didn't have to work the lunch shift at her place of employment, Jackie O's.

They slept into the late morning, but Erin was the first to rise. Even as a kid she was always the early bird, left her time to pull a vicious prank on Dean that fine summer when they were kids. Dean laid passed out on the couch, arm sticking out from under him, hand open. Oh did Erin want to find a feather and whipped cream at that moment.

She quietly roamed around her kitchen turning on her keurig and turning the radio on low for one of the morning newscasts. Dean stirred and rose from the couch, practically giving Erin the death glare. "Why the hell are you up so early?"

Erin only shrugged. "Coffee or an Irish breakfast?"

"What kind of question is that?" he asked sarcastically.

"Irish breakfast it is. You're in luck, its noon. It is now sociably acceptable to start day drinking!"

"Is drinking a past time around here or is it just you?"

"Dean, it is the number one party school, we have a few dozen bars, a marching band that dances, couches and house get lit on fire during spring fest season, and hell a kid had a hottub in his dorm room last spring. This is Ohio. If you don't have a Brewski in your hands, you might as well be wearing a dress."

Just as she pulled out her materials to make the shots a newscast caught her attention. "An Ohio University student was attacked early this morning on the corner of Mill and Stewart. Although she was not physically harmed it has been reported as suspicious. It is the eighth mysterious attack and the city of Athens has been put on an official high alert. Sheriff Kelly advises to be vigilant and not be alone at night."

"Huh," Erin pondered.

"What?" Dean asked, already in the middle of creating his shot.

"You didn't hear that?"

"Yeah. And?"

"When did we burn those bones last night?"

"Around midnight thirty."

"The attack was around that time."

"Now that you mention it that is weird. Is it be possible that we got punk'd last night?"

"I wouldn't put it past The Ridges. Maggie seemed pretty off last night."

"Erin, she's a ghost. A mentally not-all-there ghost."

"Don't insult her. But you do have a point."

Dean grabbed the counter jokingly making the impersonation that the earth was quaking. "Woah, Erin admitted I might be on to something."

She scoffed, "Don't get on the medal stand just yet." They took their shots and chased it down with orange juice. It was funny how a shot with one part jameson and one part butter scotch schnops chased down with orange juice could taste like pancakes. "I need you and Sam to suit up. I'm going to track this girl down"

/ / /

The Winchesters returned to the house and walked back to Erin's office, loosening their ties and kicking off the shoes along the way.

Erin looked up from her glasses, "What did you find out?"

Sam settled in front of her first in the corner recliner. "Same story as the other girls, but the face of the guy turned into a monster. She fits the type the ghost has been looking for. Short, short hair, female."

Erin nodded, "Well I got another factor for you. They lived in the same dorm. Wilson Hall. The one with the angry semi-demonic, occult-ish bullshit. All of them lived on the fourth floor at one point in their undergrad careers."

"Yay, we have a connection."

"Yay," sarcasm ran in Erin's choice word. "Well boys, tonight we start from square one. Looks like we have a demon ghost."

**You didn't think this would be a quick fic, did you? So yeah, Margaret Schilling did exist and so does her stain. I love The Ridges. If you ever get the chance, come to Athens and check the paranormal activity out. Or just come to Athens and enjoy the awesome place that it is. Leave a review!**


	5. Push

**I have been informed that the university is tearing down the TB Ward in a month. It has been called an attractive nuisance and is going to be demolished. Well I hope they figure out how to contain all that asbestos. It makes me sad that they are going to tear down such a historic building, one that always gives me a sense that 'something else' was around you. As always my lovelies, reviews are strongly recommended. They keep the creative juices flowin'.**

Erin made it a habit when she started out to sleep some part of the day away before she went out on a hunt. Sleep was a better alternative than buying coffee on a daily basis, and it was cheaper. You were far more alert when you were rested. The Winchesters didn't complain, it was the most sleep they have had in weeks. It was the least Erin had gotten recently. For the first time since she moved to Athens she quickened her pace when it came to closing this case. She had taken everything so casually in the past and now she was internally screaming. No way was she going let the brothers in on that, especially Dean. He wouldn't let her live it down. Erin's tough-girl front was at stake. Her internal pride of not being afraid of anything was straddling a thin line.

A three hour cat nap would have to suffice while she did her research. She pulled out a book Bobby had gotten her for graduation all those years ago about demons, blowing the dust off it. The last time she read it was the day she decided that she wasn't going to tangle with the demon department of the supernatural and make ghosts her priorities. Too messy, too many risks, too much death. She brushed her hand over the book, "Nah, there isn't such thing as a demon ghost," she told herself, fighting her instinct. This was a poltergeist, just a nasty one, she thought. Whatever made her sleep during the day.

Sam and Dean had prepped her car up for the prospect of the demon ghost, but she would have to reassure them that it wasn't. Her research said so (lies). She could handle this (lies), she had dealt with poltergeists before and came out with a few scratches, she didn't need the back up. Oh who was she kidding? She would never admit to needing help. It would hurt her pride.

She pounded away furiously at the keys of her computer and made notes on her dry-erase board linking every occurrence, history, building, and motive. Too bad there wasn't much of a motive to go on. Athens was a college town and there is bound to be a few fuckers who practice the occult to disrupt the paranormal balance. Maggie felt everything and told Erin when she visited openly and honestly. If she was holding back something it had to be serious.

The Spook Files Erin had stolen and copied from the University Library had a few pictures of the Wilson Hall mutilation, satanic symbols and all which gave the girls a connection. That room was like a safe zone for a demon, to lurk and watch, to pick out his target. The circle graves out in The Ridges Cemetery was also subject to occult practices (although they got busted by the OUPD) that never quite finished whatever ritual they were on. Unfinished business?

It still didn't make sense about the corpse. All she could gather was that the guy was a serial rapist that was declared insane and sent there. A vessel maybe? A blip noise from her computer sounded and Erin hastily opened the email that was blinking on her screen. Back in the day she registered for the news updates from the campus. What she read was unsettling.

Then she heard the sound of an alarm going off. The boys were up. Time to go to work. She never thought she would feel nervous about that.

/ / /

Sam had to stop in his tracks the moment he stepped off Erin's porch into the rain. "Oh wow, something is up."

Dean could feel it too. That feeling they had when they entered the city, the hit of ghostly presence, had amplified. God only knew what The Ridges were going to do. It had affected Erin too. She made her moves hastily and deliberate. Hell the rival-like banter had almost ceased. Truthfully Erin wanted to get the job done and leave as soon as possible.

Erin parked her car closer to the cemetery and under some of the brush to avoid being seen. Sam knew something was up, Dean being oblivious as he loaded up his sawed-off, when he noticed Erin carrying a few more salt-shells in her pocket. The moment she added a crucifix around he could tell that Erin, tough and fearless Erin that he knew when he was a kid, was scared of something up there.

They repeated the same route they had taken the night before up to Maggie's tower. Dean did the best that he could to contain his curses when he entered the building sensing all the spirits were running about a million miles an hour. Erin looked wildly around the halls. "They're restless. Something is wrong."

Dean pulled on her shoulder, yanking her back, "You got something to tell us so none of us get killed?"

Erin sighed, "I have no idea what we are dealing with."

"You said we had a demon ghost."

"I don't think it is, at least I don't want it to be. Look, we go up to Maggie, we push her to confess some things, then we go from there."

She turned on her heal and began the long climb up the stairs. They didn't knock on her door, but they were kind enough to avoid the stain on the floor. Maggie was pacing and staring out the window facing the cemetery. She had the look of fear in her eyes. "They're all stressed," Sam claimed.

"No shit," Erin mocked. Erin walked over and gently touched Maggie's shoulder. "Maggie, no games this time. There is something out there. What we did last night wasn't the real thing." Maggie turned to face the three of them, her lower lip trembling. "What is out there, Maggie?"

The temperature dropped suddenly. "Shit," Dean snarled, readying his sawed-off in his hand.

There was a loud crash that echoed through the ruins followed by the undeniable shrill of ghost screams. "What the hell?!"

"Erin! It's your call!"

Erin stepped back from Maggie who looked like she was ready to cry in fear. The door busted open, but nothing was there, but whatever it was it was angry. Erin was yanked to the floor by her ankle and dragged across the small room, screaming. Dean and Sam lunged to her, grabbing her arm pulling her back. Whatever this entity was it was strong. "Dean Winchester, don't you dare let go!" Erin said between gritted teeth. The brothers pulled harder but they could feel Erin slipping from their grasps.

By now they had her by her hand, then by the fingers, then one by one they lost her. Erin was dragged out the door. The brothers followed behind them only to have the door slammed in their faces. "Son of a bitch! Its must be locked from the outside." The door wouldn't budge. Dean was too stubborn to realize that.

Sam stepped away from the door and turned to Maggie who was facing the window again. She had to know what was going on. He didn't know how to speak to her, that was all on Erin, but he had to try. Dean was too abrasive and that didn't work so well with ghosts let alone a mentally damaged one. "I know you can't speak, but you have to tell us where Erin is or what has her."

Maggie looked at Sam, ghost tears falling down her face.  
"We are here to help you friend, but we can't do anything if you don't give us a clue."

Maggie stared at Sam and opened her mouth as if she was trying to form words. "Ce-ce-ceeem-"

"Cemetery!" Sam finished.

She nodded.

Dean punched to door. "Well that's great we know where she is too bad we can't get out. Even the damn windows have bars. We're stuck here while whatever that things is, is doing god knows what to Erin!" Maggie disappeared from the room. "Oh great, our only lead goes all Batman on us."

"Just calm down, Dean. We'll figure this out."

"Figure this out? Calm down?! Really Sam you saw what that thing did to those girls! You're going to let that happen to Erin?"

The door opened from behind Dean. Maggie was standing in the doorway. "Thanks," said Sam. They wasted no time getting out the door and rushed down the stairs, totally ignoring Erin's previous heed of caution from the night before. Getting out of the main building was trickey. Erin wasn't there to guide them. They ran through the halls looking for some sort of door that would lead out them to the outside, hell a window without bars would do. They found themselves in the university surplus/storage sector of the grounds. They were getting close. The old band uniforms were a clue. Dean caught sight of a window in the instrument storage room. He didn't hesitate to pick up a broken music stand and crash it into the thick window. Once they were out of the building they had to get their bearings. The grounds at night was like a labrynth. "Cemetery was alongside a brick road right?" Dean asked.

"Pretty sure."

"I'll take that."

They scoured the side of the road, hoping that they would find her before they got to the cemetery. They had to get to her in time. They looked for tracks in the mud that hadn't washed away in the rain. They come up with nothing until they came to the top of the hill looking down at the hundreds of headstones. The circle graves were at the far end of the place, over the decrepit bridge in the thicket. The farther they went in the more they could see drag-tracks. "Erin!" Dean yelled.

The Winchesters slid down the slopes of the graveyard to the thicket, calling her name hoping they wouldn't find her by the circle graves.

But they were too late. They found Erin a few feet away from the graves and out cold. Sam knelt down beside her in the mud, "Hey Erin." He tapped her face. "C'mon." He lifted her out of the mud laying her across his lap. "You gotta come back to us Erin or your brother will kill us."

Dean tossed Sam his small bottle of holy water. "Just make sure there isn't anything in her," he said.

"Are we going to jump to conclusions right now?"

"Just trust me, we don't know what we are dealing with."

Reluctantly Sam doused holy water on Erin's face. She stirred in response but there was no sign of a demon in her. For that they were relieved. Erin's eyes fluttered open and her breathing picked up to the pace of a panic attack. Dean got the hint and ran to get her car back to the road. Sam picked her up and carried her up to the road trying to calm Erin who was fighting in his arms. She was hysterical. A hysterical hunter, regardless of gender, was a scary thing.

/ / /

If the brothers learned anything from the case is that taking her into an ER wasn't an option. No one was going to believe her. It was just a sad fact of the case.

They took her home, cleaned the mud off her, and after about an hour long panic attack she finally fell asleep. Dean took it upon himself to make sure she was fine, and by fine it meant not physically harmed. No one was equipped to handle the mental harm.

Sam was in her study going through her notes and her books when Dean walked back there, settling in one of her comfy chairs (with stacks of books serving as an end table no less.) Sam looked up from her computer. "She asleep?"

Dean shook his head wearily. "Yeah, about time too."

"What do you think happened to her?"

"I think I know, but I don't want to. All we can do is wait for her to wake up then go from there."

"She should have stayed behind."

"If we could see into the future then no shit, but like we could have ever known."

Sam pointed to Erin's dry-erase board. "She figured out the connection. This is definitely a demon ghost. A step up from a poltergeist. Look at the past girls too, Erin looks like them."

"Then why didn't this thing go after her earlier, why now?"

Sam handed Dean one of Erin's notebooks, "Like a demon, this thing possesses whatever it feels like is a good vessel and from the looks of it, it looks like getting off is the thing's motive."

"So it possesses the spirit of a criminally insane rapist that died up in the asylum back in the day. Just wonderful."

"A further look into her notes it seems Erin was in denial of the whole thing."

That caught Dean's full attention. "In denial of what?"

"The demon factor. I checked some of her online history, she doesn't touch the demon stuff."

"Why not?"

Sam shrugged. "Only she can answer that. It would make sense for the off behavior."

Dean wanted to deny a simple fact of hunter life: If you were afraid of something, truly afraid, you avoided it and called someone else to deal with it or at least call for help. If Erin didn't need help they would have been back at Bobby's by now enjoying the supernatural silence. Erin kept them around for a reason, but she had too much pride to admit it. She pretended that there was no demon ghost. "Never took Erin to be scared of anything. So why does it specifically go for Erin after all these years?"

"We pissed it off, took away its vessel." It was a valid explanation for Sam.

"So we have to go find this bastard again and gank it before it attacks another girl?"

Sam shrugged, "Don't have much of an option unless Erin wants to put herself out there again."

"And Austin would kill us."

"Pick your poison."

"Okay, well there are about a few thousand girls just in the campus alone. Are we just going to sit up on Court and creep on them until the demon ghost draws his weapon? C'mon Sam, its liquor pitcher Wednesday." For once the thought of drinking and watching pretty college girls wasn't so appealing to Dean.

"We can figure this out later in the morning."

"Like hell we are, we got lives on the line here."

"Dean, you need to sleep. You have been hovering over Erin since we brought her home. Let me watch her. I got salt and holy water ready in case something happens to break through the iron and salt foundation, plus my latin is better than yours."

"Fine."

"Oh and the proper name for this day of the week is Wasted Wednesday."

Dean glared at his brother, "Really Sam?"

"Learn it, Dean."


	6. Half-Cocked

There was no such thing as privacy as far as Sam was concerned. He shared everything, even if he didn't want to, with Dean. Rarely it was for his own good, but mostly it was just him being a big brother being an annoyance. Breaking into Erin's privacy was a whole different ball game, it just felt wrong. He was sitting by her bedside running through a bunch of different files on her laptop, mostly research notes and emails.

Her notes were cryptic, but he was figuring out the pattern. It wasn't nearly as complicated as his father's but it was still a tedious task. She wasn't raised military, but she abused the use of acronyms that only made sense to her.

Erin was quiet for the most part other than a few whimpers and moans more than likely from a nightmare. How could she not have them after all these years? It was when she started to form words did Sam feel the need to wake her up.

Just before he even touched her shoulder she bolted up, gasping as if she was filling her lungs for the first time. Sam backed off immediately; if she wanted to hold his hand and talk about her feelings she would let him know, but she was just about as bad as Dean when it came to holding in the emotional stuff as far as he knew. She and Austin were close afterall. Erin caught her breath and looked over at Sam, "What?"

"Nothing." That was a lie. Sam had a lot of questions for her, starting with the typical 'are you alright?'

She shook her head and leant over to the nightstand to her right. She opened the drawer and pulled out a green bottle and a shot glass. Scotch. On very few occasions did Erin feel the need to take a drink to fall asleep, usually she was too worn out to even dream. Tonight proved to be one of those nights where she would drink to sleep and to forget. She poured herself a shot and threw it back quickly, not even wincing at the strong taste.

Sam eyed her skeptically, "Self-medication?"

Erin threw the blanket off her and swung her legs over the edge of the bed into a sitting position running her fingers through her stringy hair. "Only the best. You should ask your brother, it works miracles."

Sam nodded. It was sadly accepted that of all things, booze was the best medicine for hunters, except for him, he would stick to the over the counter stuff. Unless Erin was already a habitual drinker this hunter's life story was going to be a sad one. Come to think of it, she did beat Dean in a drinking match.

Erin looked up from the bottle in her hand at Sam. He had her computer. "What are you doing with that?" she asked in that tone that screamed you-read-my-diary-and-I'm-going-to-cut-you-for-it.

Sam was at least going to be honest, "Figured I could find something about this case in here that you may have looked over."

Erin gave him a death glare and yanked the computer from his hands. "It's one thing when I let you on my turf, on my brother's behalf nonetheless, but going through my stuff without my permission is breaking some basic rules."

"I just had to make sure there wasn't anything we have missed."

"Now that just sounds like an insult to my ability to do my job."

Sam couldn't argue with that, but he had his defense. "Look, we are doing our job too. We do what we can to get the information we need, including breaking into other people's stuff, so I'm sorry that I am taking helping close this case." He sighed, "Look, you were just attacked. Dean and I are just covering all the bases so we can gank this thing so no one else gets hurt."

"This case is my case, Sam," Erin replied.

There was more to this than he thought. This was a matter of pride apparently. Sam had to rethink his approach without turning into Dean. Hunters got possessive of cases when it was something dear to them, like his father hunting down the yellow-eyed demon. "This is a personal thing, isn't it?"

Erin opened up her computer and began to type away, ignoring Sam.

"Erin?"

She looked up at him and turned her computer screen towards him. Erin showed him the email she got from the university, a campus-wide message of news and of support, earlier that day. "One of the victims that no one believed, the one you didn't get to interview, committed suicide last night."

Sam read the email. He hated it when cases took this kind of turn, unless they were caused by a supernatural force. If it was the latter it was a matter of business. "What do you think did it?" he asked.

Erin closed the computer and sighed, looking as if she had pulled the plug on a living relative in a vegetative state, "It's not a supernatural force. I…failed." A silent tear streak fell down from her eye. "It was my fault that they died."

Oh no, she is not going there, Sam thought. That was a nasty kind of guilt he wouldn't wish upon anyone. "You couldn't have done anything. You didn't know her."

Erin shook her head, "Sam, I could have killed that demon years ago and I didn't do a damn thing. I fucked up."

"Shit happens."

"No, Sam." She sighed heavily trying to control the emotions built up in her, she had her rep to keep and wasn't going to let a moment of weakness show. It was just so hard right now. "When I got to Athens a few years ago, when I first went up to The Ridges, I could feel something…evil. I came in half-cocked and I freaked out. I ignored it and took the first ghost gig that came my way. I was afraid, Sam."

Her breath hitched, she was doing all that she could to keep it together. Thank god Dean wasn't there, she thought. Sam inched closer to her, sitting on the edge of the chair, kind of scared to touch her as means to comfort her, but he settled for listening. "Erin, it's okay."

"No it isn't! God only knows how many girls out there this thing has hurt and there wasn't any justice. Think about all the girls who went for help after being attacked. Think about the girls who didn't report it. How long did I let this go on? All because I was scared of a little demon. I ignored it and didn't bother to put the pieces together of the bigger picture."

"Erin-"

"My fear and ignorance caused death and trauma. I can't live with that! I'm a hunter, I'm not supposed to be afraid."

Sam looked her in the eye, "Hunters get scared. Believe me."

Erin rolled her eyes, "C'mon, you're a Winchester. You fear no one and nothing."

"That isn't entirely true."

"Bullshit. What do you have to fear?"

Sam thought hard about all the things he and his brother came across in their lives. He was scared of everything when he thought about it. He was nine years-old when he was given a .45 for a monster in his room. Sam was scared of a lot of things, he wasn't sure about Dean, but he was sure his brother had his list. "I get scared shitless whenever Dean and I go out on a hunt. I don't know if we're gonna make it out alive or if I could lose Dean, no matter the case."

"You don't look it."

"It's just the cocky aura that Dean exudes," Sam shrugged, trying to lighten the mood. "Hell you're brother is scared of something happening to you."

"What are you scared of?"

"What isn't there to be scared of in our line of work?" he chuckled.

Erin returned the gesture half-heartedly.

"You don't have to be tough all the time," Sam said.

"But I can't be weak like I am now. People get hurt."

"People will get hurt no matter what we do. We're human, Erin."

"But I screwed up. All those girls-"

"Erin," now Sam was done playing around with this pity party. "It is part of the job. It sucks, but no one is perfect. Yeah, you fucked up but so do even the best hunters. All you can do at this point is heal some wounds."

Erin nodded. She felt defeated, but relieved. Still traumatized, but settled. She had to be, she had to make her next move.

/ / /

Sam forgot where he was for a moment when he woke up head tilted back on the comfy chair, laptop laying on the floor. It was when he saw his notes and the dry erase board he remembered. Dean opened to door, nudging his little brother to wake up some more and handed him a carry-out container. "Rise and shine, mountain troll."

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother and glanced at the contents of the container. Biscuits and gravy, a couple pancakes with a little cup of syrup on the side, and hashbrowns. Diner breakfast; a very Dean Winchester thing to eat. Sam looked up at the clock and read one in the afternoon. He gestured the container, "Leftovers?"

Dean shook his head, "Hell no. Found a place a few streets over, up a hill like everywhere else. Some diner is open twenty-four-seven, always serving breakfast. Dude, as much as this town is fucked up they know good food, like really good food." Dean settled in the desk chair already in the middle of a bite of pancakes. "What did you bring for show and tell?"

"All kinds of things. Some things were so obvious that we missed, but I have an idea of what we are really dealing with."

"Like?"

"Definitely a demon ghost."

"So a ghost of demon-"

"Possessing another ghost making it appear as a vengeful spirit, yeah."

"Wonderful."

"Yeah, which is why the grave Erin showed me a few miles north of here wasn't disturbed, but she burned those bones long ago along with the recent addition."

"So how did it get here? Who summoned it?"

"Well it's a college town, you're bound to have some group of kids practicing or chanting something they shouldn't. That story of Wilson Hall seems to be where it all started."

"So a girl practiced the occult, summons a demon, gets killed by it and..?"

"Wilson is where it hung out until a vessel of its liking comes around for it to possess."

"It went after mentally fucked up serial rapists. 'Explains why no one questioned it. Just fantastic _and_ sick."

"Would make sense for the girls all living in the same building. Other than that this thing really had us fooled."

"Yeah and I'm sure the staff at the Athens Lunatic Asylum had good reason to bury the recent vessel in a crypt no one could find all this time."

"And the circle graves are where some past students have gone up to practice things they shouldn't out of some book that shouldn't exist indirectly making it another safe ritual torture zone."

"So Erin was nearly raped?" Dean's tone changed now. Now he was disgusted. "Okay, so how do we kill it?"

"We give it what it wants before it has time to find a new vessel," Erin said, standing in the doorway of her office looking exhausted.

The brothers looked up, Sam slightly relieved that she wasn't totally wrecked, but Dean faking not being concerned, all about business.

"Nice to see you with us," Sam said.

"You guys want to kill this ass hole?"

Dean was eager to answer, "Absolutely."

Erin nodded, "Then you're going to give me over to it."

Sam raised a skeptical eyebrow at her, "What?"

"You heard me."

Dean interjected, "Erin, you were dragged out by it and we found you near hysterics. What makes you think we're gonna risk that again?"

"Because I know what it wants. I've seen it."

"What did you see?" Sam asked.

Erin leaned against the wall, "It wants to revenge for me basically blue-balling it. It wants to possess me and rip me apart from the inside."

Dean got the hint and didn't like it, "You're gonna let whatever demon thing it is take advantage of you, probably kill you?!"

"You have any better ideas?"

No they didn't.

"You both lack vaginas and boobs so you're not any good luring it out, and it doesn't have anything against you two. If you both are around watching I will be fine."

"Still a big no in my book."

"Well Dean, you can just take a hike, oh and downhill so you don't hurt yourself."

A detail didn't tie up in Sam's head. He asked, "Why didn't it just take you right then last night?"

Erin got quiet, "I fought it. It got pissed at me and threw me out, and then you guys showed up. I used my silver knife, but I barely gave him a scratch. It will come after me, might as well kill this son of a bitch when we know it will strike next. I know what it will do and I know how to kill it."

"Amuse us if you please with you solution," Dean said.

Erin crossed her arms, "You will have to let it possess me and then shoot me with a silver bullet."

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	7. I'm not the one holding the gun

"I don't like anything about this plan, Erin. In all seriousness it's like you are committing suicide," Dean was adamant that Erin's idea was the closest thing to self-sacrifice.

Erin shrugged as she sat on her couch, assembling and loading salt shells and counting her silver bullets, "You got a better plan?"

"Workin' on it."

Erin rolled her eyes.

"You're a glutton for punishment."

"Pot, meet kettle."

"C'mon, you are going to let the demon ghost possess you and then ask us to shoot you with a silver bullet to get rid of it?"

Erin placed her loaded sawed-off on the ottoman, "I can handle it."

Dean didn't buy that piece of bullshit. "Erin, I have seen what people are like after being possessed. They aren't the same if they ain't dead.

"I'll be fine."

"I've been shot before, I barely managed to keep up the façade. What makes you think you're going to be all honky-dory after a possession and a bullet in you?"

Erin got up from the couch and walked to the kitchen to get a beer for herself. "It's only fair."

"What?"

"Dean-"

"Is this some weird female-rationale that doesn't make any sense until it's too late?"

"No, Dean, just go with it, okay?"

Dean got up and cornered her on the counter, "Not until you start talkin'. Why?"

Erin turned away from him, "Just leave it."

"You know I would, but you haven't been yourself."

"What would you know? We haven't spoken to each other in eleven years!"

"You haven't uttered a soul-damaging, smart-ass sentence in the last twenty-four hours and you have been defensive since you were attacked. The Erin I know is never defensive; she is stubborn as hell and faces a fight head on, and she always has something to say me about whatever thing I have done and uses it as blackmail."

How was she supposed to make him understand? This was a personal case, and would he be sympathetic after what had happened to her? Those girls weren't so lucky, she was weary. "I saw what he did to those girls, Dean. It had been going on for years. This demon creeps into their heads and causes them to hallucinate the whole rape."

Dean put down the shell he was making in his hands, "So there's the lack of evidence, huh."

Erin nodded. "I don't know what it did but I know it tried to get inside my head and kick me around, I just went primal and fought until it knocked me out. I think it sensed you guys coming."

"And you want to go back there?"

"It's the only way I know."

"What if it doesn't work? You get hurt or killed. What then?"

Erin smirked half-heartedly, "I trust you guys to finish the job."

Dean shook his head at slight amazement, "You are the Erin I know. Doesn't care, just get the job done."

"I learned from the best." That was completely directed at Dean.

/ / /

The rain had stopped leaving a moist chill in the air, but no one was going to hold their breath. It was Ohio after all and it could start pouring at any moment. Erin found a new place to park/hide, far away enough to be hidden from the Demon but close enough to be able to watch and run to the circle graves to make their move, and after much bitching and complaining Dean was able to get the Impala out of the garage/hiding.

Under a bunch of brush Dean and Sam armed themselves for the ganking while Erin sat off to the side on a tree stump, quiet and calculating. Erin had told Dean where to shoot her, right in the left shoulder. That was strange but she rationalized it to this demon not having normal demonic anatomy. The heart was as far up in the left shoulder as it could be. "Rationalize with the irrational." But if all else fails go for the human heart. Erin wanted Dean to do it because he was the kind of guy wouldn't even think to shoot his dad if he was told to do so. Sam thinks too much and takes precious time.

"Are we clear on the plan?" asked Erin.

Sam said, "We sit and wait, let the possession happen, I chant some latin and Dean shoots you with some silver."

Dean didn't want to do it, but he understood. "Just don't screw up," he told her.

"I'm not the one with a gun," she snapped back.

/ / /

Sam and Dean watched Erin wander around the circle graves, taunting the entity to come out. "Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present the waiting game," Dean chimed. "Playing tonight is Dean and Sam Winchester. Tonight they are competing for our grand prize, a dead demon."

Despite the timing Sam appreciated Dean's twisted sense of humor.

"And now a word from our sponsors," Dean finished. He pulled a white paper bag out from under the driver's seat and opened it revealing some sort of pastry.

Sam looked up at his brother quizzically, "Dude?"

Dean took another bite, "I'm tellin' ya, man, this town knows food."

Sam turned the bag over to face him and read the big bubble blue print. "_Fluff_? You went to a place called _Fluff_."

"This town has way more than just ghosts, college and drinking. They have food done right."

"But it's not pie."

"Oh they had pie. That little lunch box in Minnesota just found its competition."

Sam huffed, "So we just wait and watch."

"Guess so," Dean replied taking another bite from his third scone.

They watched Erin meander about the circle graves, sitting, standing, walking, Dean swore she looked like she was dancing. This waiting was a pain in the ass. They left her house at ten and were still there watching at midnight. Erin was there, why was this thing taking so long?

/ / /

Erin could feel its presence. It was toying with her. It was one of those things where you knew it was there waiting for its chance, but the fact it was prolonging its attack made it seem sinister. It was all around her for hours. She could feel it brush past her and whisper her name among other things. Erin started to talk back to the darkness, to taunt it. "I'm here. You're pissed at me because I toasted all your vessels, interrupted whatever you were doing." She felt a tug on her short hair. The thing was here. "Why don't you come out and finish the job you son of a bitch? I'm a fighter, that should turn you on. I'm stronger than all those other girls you took, I figured you like a challenge."

The felt her jacket rip from her shoulders, slicing through her white t-shirt, and a tug on her jeans. "_You asked for it,"_ it hissed. Erin was pushed to the ground and could feel it envelop itself in her body. Demon possession comes on quick, but it felt like a crack of a whip to the psyche. Erin could see and feel herself being taken over, laying on the ground squirming for physical freedom, could feel it fight her in her mind. She saw its sinister horned face and felt it try to enter her with its thorned rod, but she fought it. Mentally she saw it all, and it was horrifying, then came the physical pain of feeling scratches down her back and the weight on her chest, the tight grip on her hips. Nothing inside her physically or mentally as long as she fought. Erin wasn't going to let him enter her in any way.

Not in a million years was she going to let this thing win. She had to buy some time for Sam and Dean to chant the bits of customized latin and take the shot. "Kill it Dean!" she cried hoping someone would hear.

/ / /

The brothers sprinted once they caught sight of Erin's meeting with the earth. They followed their orders when they arrived and saw that the demon had begun its possession. They had to give it time, let it get so carried away it wasn't paying attention to what was behind them. It was the hardest thing they had to do, seeing a friend sacrifice themselves for a case, even though they didn't have much of a choice. Risk themselves or an innocent girl; it was a no brainer but it sucked.

Watching Erin writhe, fighting screams, and then switch over to see what the demon was doing through her. It was like watching a bear maul a human. It was war in her mind and body. "Kill it, Dean!" she screamed. Dean readied his pistol as Sam chanted slowly.

That wasn't going to fly with Dean. "Hurry it up, Sam."

Sam didn't stop but he didn't speed up.

Just then Erin sat up and was still. Her mouth hung open looking glazed over, but that changed when she shook her head, snapped up and smiled. "Up for a four way boys?" the demon asked, his voice chorusing with Erin's.

Sam continued chanting but amped up the volume. It began to have affect. Erin and the demon screamed in sync.

/ / /

Erin was freed only for a minute after screaming. She caught her breath and could see Sam and Dean standing above her. "Damn it shoot me, Dean!"

He shook his head, "Not yet. Hurry up Sammy!"

Sammy picked up the pace, readying his fist for Dean's signal to shoot. Dean wasn't going to wait. He took the shot, aiming for her left shoulder in ernest.

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	8. Well Adjusted

Possession hurt, but it was quick. Exorcism was a different story. Demons didn't want to leave and they would fight tooth and nail to stay in. If they couldn't they would wreck the vessel, like a frat boy party house. It was painful. The gunshot didn't help.

The three of them watched the demon leave in sparks and light, pouring from her mouth and seep into the earth.

Erin caught her fall with her good arm. "It's gone," she breathed.

Dean took out his bottle of holywater and doused some on her. No steam, she was in the clear. The brothers gently lifted her up from the ground, close to her side in case she would collapse on them. She was weak on her feet. Blame the blood loss.

"You okay?" Sam asked.

Erin nodded and quickly regretted it. "Yeah, let's go home." She stepped forward and made her way to the Impala. It was quiet and awkward. Dean felt bad for shooting her and Sam didn't care for silence. Dean opened the backseat for her and she carefully sat down on the beige seats, careful not to aggravate her bloody shoulder. "You wanna get that checked out? You look like hell."

Erin looked up at him, "I have stuff at home to take care of this. And of course I look like hell, I was just possessed and shot."

Couldn't argue with that.

Dean drove slowly out of The Ridges and eased down across the river to Erin's house. It seemed like Erin was one step ahead of the guys. She was already out of the car and halfway up her walk by the time Dean and Sam got out of the car. By the time they entered the house she was already in her bathroom maneuvering her suitcase of first aid from the top shelf with her good arm. Sam wanted to call it a night, figuring that if anyone knew anything about fixing people with bullet wounds it was Dean. He had already gotten a lot of practice in the past between him and his dad being chased out of towns and getting knicked by police bullets in the process.

The other reason was Erin's stubbornness; lord only knew the kind of force that was. Dean was the pigheaded enough, but Erin was awful. As a kid it went beyond pranks and teenage rivalries, it was full-blown tenacity.

"You get her," Sam said.

Dean turned to his brother, "Hell no, you take care of her. She's all weird, you two will be perfect for an hour. Hey, you might even get laid out of it."

"Really?"

"Just sayin'."

"You are way better at stitching people up than I ever will be, plus you will drive a hell of a lot faster and think of a better story if it gets worse and she needs to go to that hospital down the street. I'm not the best liar."

"Yeah, you're not. Fine, but you owe me a few hours of sleep, man."

Crash. "Fuck!" Erin.

"That would be my cue," Dean snarked.

"Have fun," his brother quipped.

Dean opened the always unlocked bathroom door to find Erin leaning up against the wall in her bloody t-shirt, breathing through clenched teeth with a suitcase at her feet. "I got this," she hissed.

Dean smirked, "Got this my ass."

"I can manage this."

"Trust me when I say that pulling out bullets is a two-man job." He pointed to the edge of the tiny bathtub, "Sit."

Erin did as she was told. Normally she would tell Dean to leave and let her be, that she was better at medical things than he was, but she was working with one arm and had a hell of a time keeping her vision straight. The deep scratches trailing from her back to her hips didn't help either. Dean cracked open the suitcase and whistled, "Who do you think you are, a frontline medic?"

"Prepare for the worst, hope for the best."

"You know you don't live too far from a hospital, you have legit insurance…"

"And I can't make up stories to the doctors, police, and my boss for every other night I banged up. The townies are kind of nosey to begin with. One of the nurses is a regular at Jackie O's."

Dean found one of the rips her in her shirt and tore it off her and tossed it into the tub behind her, leaving her in jeans and a purple sports bra with added blood stains.

The thing about a hunter's medical expertise is that it is practical and no nonsense. Whiskey was great for numbing the pain and taking the mind off it. Erin had a replenished bottle in stock. After a few swigs she couldn't feel half her left side and slumped to the floor to keep herself steady while Dean fished around for the bullet. Dean scoffed, "Thought you could hold you liquor."

Erin smirked, "You got me at my one moment of weakness. Cookie for you."

"I'll make sure you own up to that….Found it."

"About time."

"This is gonna hurt coming out."

"Shouldn't have warned me."

Dean slowly pulled the silver projectile out of her flesh. Erin's face contorted in pain but she wasn't going to make a sound. "I'm a little worried about the blood loss."

She was shaking from the pain, "Don't worry about it, I nabbed a unit in my blood type a while back. It's in the drawer in the fridge."

"You know, I'm not going to kick a girl while she's down, not after the stunt she pulled up there. You can whimper, it's kind of a normal thing. Means you're human."

Erin took another swig of whiskey and let out a short breath. "Nice try, Winchester. I bleed, that's human enough for me." Dean was in the middle of cleaning the wound when Erin spoke again, "How do you deal with it, the nightmares and all?"

Dean paused and thought about it for a moment, "You don't really. All you can do is wake up."

"Figures."  
"Why?"

Erin sighed, "I'm just worried about what I have done to myself tonight. I mean, I didn't let anything happen and I fought the bastard, but I can't un-see some things, you know what I mean?"

Dean shrugged. "Yeah. It's just another nail in the hunter's coffin." He threaded the curved needle and began stitching her flesh, "So I have to ask, why Athens?"

Erin smiled, "Why not? Plenty of ghosts and other shit to keep me busy and out of normal trouble."

"Okay, then why hunt? Your family was the closest to normal, why not go all the way and be the actual thing, break the cycle?"

Erin thought about how she was going to answer a loaded question. She only came up with memories of the summers of her youth.

She was twelve when she started talking to ghosts, six months later she was salting and burning their bones. She was fourteen when she dug her first grave, much against the chargin of both her parents, to retrieve some amulet to scare away a monster. When she was seventeen she and her brother Austin spent a weekend working a case across the state taking out a werewolf, an injured one from her father's handiwork that got away.

No one forced her into the life, hell her mama wanted her to stay out of it and run for student council for something normal like that. Erin knew she wanted to be a hunter the moment she watched her dad teach Austin how to shoot a gun when he was four. She tried normal, but it only made her want to be out on the field more.

She was fifteen when she met Dean Winchester and it was a hell of a summer when her family took the boys in.

"I think it was when you told me that my place wasn't in hunting. I just had to prove you wrong."

Dean chuckled at the memory. He remembered how she gave him a black eye for saying that. "Oh yeah, well you still shouldn't hunt. I mean look at you," he gestured her battered body.

"Save it, Dean. Just stitch me up, butcher."

Dean played with the insult and returned it with a quick tug on the last bullet wound stitch, just enough to bug Erin.

"Jerk."

"Ice Queen."

"Ass."

"Wimp."

"You're calling the girl who got herself possessed and nearly mind-raped to beat a demon ghost a wimp? Wow, Dean Winchester is losing his creative touch."

"You're never going to change," he scoffed.

"I will when hell freezes over."

Dean turned Erin around to face the tub so he could get started on her back claw marks.

"Hey Dean."

"Yeah?"

Erin handed Dean the bottle of whiskey. "Happy thirsty Thursday, and thanks, you know, for coming down here."

"Your brother would have killed me if I didn't."

/ / /

The following afternoon Sam was packing the Impala. They weren't going to leave for another few hours, but with them being wanted fugitives they needed to be ready to cut and run when the time came. First thing they had to do, by Erin's insistence, was to truly take in Athens for what it was aside from the supernatural. Erin was careful of her arm and chugged

Dean had already become acclimated with the food aspect.

When they first arrived they didn't think to give the place a second glance, it was ajust another haunted town with too many stories, but Athens turned out to be a beautiful place, even in the spring rain. The brick streets gave the uptown a lived in feel, but that was what Athens was, lived in. Erin couldn't resist but buy them two shirts, one a joke about the infamous Jeff Hill (the steepest on campus) for Dean and Harvard on the Hocking for Sam (more as a joke to his Stanford days). "If you didn't have to worry about being found out I would take you on a Court Street shuffle. It's almost a crime to not drink at every bar while you're here."

"Gotta head out for a bit to lie low but gotta admit that does sound like fun."

"Sam, you wouldn't get past the third tavern."

"I survived my twenty-first just fine at Stanford, Dean."

"You both wouldn't last," Erin finished.

They turned west at the end of Court and Union, walking up to a hanging wooden sign with burned black letters reading Jackie O's Pub and Brewery. Sure it was Erin's place of work but it was her day off. No one was going to question it. One of her bearded buddies was working the lunch shifts and already made her drink as she walked in the antique-looking doors. It was the last of the screaming pumpkin, a lovely combination of pumpkin ale and bourbon from the stills the last year. The brothers recognized nothing on tap. It was all a bunch of weird names like Hocking Triple and Razzwheat. Erin ordered for them, and they wearily took the crafted glass.

"Is this some snobby home brew?" Dean asked.

Erin tipped up the glass for him, "Just drink it."

Sam barely touched his; he had a feeling there needed to be at least one sober person to walk two day drinkers home and be an alert co-pilot for a twenty-hour drive.

Dean couldn't believe what he was drinking. It was strong, but not hard liquor strong, and it tasted something wonderful, almost rustic. "What is that?"

Erin smiled, "Razzwheat."

She got up and walked back behind the bar, put some money behind in the register, and filled up a dark jug. She slid it down to Dean in a comical bartending style you would see in a western movie. "Consider this a parting gift."

/ / /

After packing up a few last minute brown jugs from the bar it came time to say their goodbyes. "So where you guys going next?" Erin asked watching the brothers settle themselves in their respective seats in the car.

Dean slammed his door shut, "Probably up to Souix falls, hang out at Bobby's until this manhunt things calms down."

Erin nodded. "Tell him I said hey. I mean I haven't really talked to him since graduation."

"Will do."

Silence, awkward silence.

"You sure you're okay?" Dean asked.

Erin paused and shoved her good hand in her pocket, "I think I will be."

Dean ripped up a piece of paper he had in his jacket pocket and scribbled numbers on it. "You need anything don't be afraid to call."

Erin looked at the number and laughed. "So does this mean that I might get to continue our little rivalry more often than once every decade?"

"Don't push your luck," he chuckled.

Sam shook his head at the pathetic sight of banter. He started the car himself hoping that would get Dean's attention for the road. "Knock it off you two."

Erin smiled, "Get out of here you twits before I chase you out."

With that Dean back the car out of her small drive and made his way for route thirty-three west watching Athens, Ohio disappear from their sight.

_**What a shitty ending, but yay it is done. Let me know what you think. I don't plan to start any new fics until mid-may when I return from the Marching 110 and OU Wind Symphony's Europe trip and getting my wisdom teeth out afterwards. I will have plenty of time to write and keep up with every one else's wonderful stories.**_

_**Oh man, every time I mention food or alcohol from Athens in this fic it makes me want to get out of my apartment and hunt down some Court and Union Street Diner, Fluff, and mosey up to Jackie O's. I hope you enjoyed this, see y'all in May.**_


End file.
